EMPIRE

(The Wargame of the Century)

This software is furnished under a license for use only by
the purchaser. This software may not be copied or made
available to any other persons. Title and ownership of the
software shall remain at all times in Northwest Software.

Northwest Software assumes no liability for the use or misuse
of its software. Liability for any warranties implied or
stated is limited to the replacement of the distribution
floppy disk should it be determined to be defective within
thirty days of its purchase.

INTRODUCTION

Congratulations! You have purchased one of the most popular
games on mainframe computers, now made available on the
personal computer. Empire was
originally written by Walter Bright for a PDP-10 at Caltech.
The game has since been converted to run on a DEC VAX, and
has been played for years at Caltech, MIT and at VAX
installations. Empire was rewritten from scratch to run on
smaller computers.

Empire is a simulation of a global conflict between two to
three implacable foes. No compromise is possible, each must
strive to annihilate the other. The war is conducted over a
large map, with land, sea and cities on it. Each player
manipulates his armies, fighters and ships to try and smash
the others, to reach the goal of total domination of the
world. Empire is not a video arcade-type game. It is a
thinking man's game, as it requires strategy and tactics
instead of hand-eye coordination.

Warning: Empire has been known to be addictive. Typical games
can take several hours.

An extra serial port and terminal for each additional
live player desired (2 maximum).

EMPIRE distribution floppy with the following files on
it:

EMPIRE.EXE EMPIRE2.EXE (backup copies)
A.MAP A2.MAP
B.MAP B2.MAP

GETTING STARTED

Perform the following steps to get EMPIRE running on your
computer:

Follow your computer's instructions to boot up MS-DOS.

Make a backup copy of your EMPIRE distribution disk.
(EMPIRE is copyrighted, but is not copy-protected, so you can
make backups (for your personal use only) using the normal
MS-DOS copy command.)

Place your EMPIRE distribution disk in the default
drive.

Type EMPIRE. The drive light will come on for a few
seconds, after which this will appear on your display:

Empire version x.x
Copyright (c) 1983, 1984 by Northwest Software
Written by Walter Bright
Do you want the speaker turned on (Y or N)? N

Press the Y key if you would like sound. Press N or
RETURN if not. Note: Press N if you are not running EMPIRE on
an IBM PC.

Now you will see (if you have previously saved a game):

Continuing a previous game (Y or N)? N

Press the RETURN key if you are not, press Y if you are. If
you restored a previous game, you are now back where you were
when you saved it. Otherwise, follow on. Note: games are
saved in a file called EMPIRE.DAT on the default drive. If it
is not there, this step will be skipped.

EMPIRE will ask how many players are playing. Two or
three can play, but you can designate the computer to run any
or all of the players if you don't have someone to play
against. Note that you will need an extra serial port and
terminal for each human opponent.

Now come a series of questions about each player. You
must decide for each player whether he is real or is played
by the computer, and what he has for a display (computer
players don't need a display).

If you select a player to play off of com1: or com2:,
you must have these serial ports installed and a terminal
attached to them. The characteristics of com1: and com2: must
also have been set up prior to running EMPIRE by using the
MS-DOS MODE command. There is more information about setting
up the serial ports at the end of this booklet.

The display option 'Conform to MS-DOS protocol' is used
when you are running MS-DOS from a terminal. This option is
also useful if your machine does not have IBM PC compatible
display hardware, but can emulate a terminal.

Computer players can be set to 'No display'. Use this
option if you don't have a com1: or com2: to display them on.

If you specified all the players to be run by the
computer, EMPIRE will now run until somebody wins or you turn
off the power.

For each human player, you will be asked for your
initial city production demands. Press one of the following
keys selecting what you want your city to produce:

A: Armies

F: Fighters

D: Destroyers

T: Troop transports

S: Submarines

R: Cruisers

C: Aircraft carriers

B: Battleships

For your first game, pressing A for armies is recommended.

You're off and running! Please refer to the OPERATION
section for how to play the game.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The game is played on a map of 60 rows by 100 columns. Row
numbers are 0 to 59, column numbers are 0 to 99. Coordinates
are shown as row,col.

Characters displayed on the map are (for terminals):

Terrain:

blank unknown territory

. sea

+ land

* unconquered city

Player 1:

O conquered city

A army

F fighter

D destroyer

T troop transport

S submarine

R cruiser

C aircraft carrier

B battleship

Player 2:

o conquered city

a army

f fighter

d destroyer

t troop transport

s submarine

r cruiser

c aircraft carrier

b battleship

Player 3:

X conquered city

1 army

2 fighter

3 destroyer

4 troop transport

5 submarine

6 cruiser

7 aircraft carrier

8 battleship

The display is the same for the IBM monochrome display,
except that the land is shown as a block. For the color
display, OAFDTSRCB is used for each player, but Player 1 is
yellow,
Player 2 is red and Player 3 is
purple. Also, the
land is green, the sea is
blue and unconquered cities are
black.

The entire map is unknown (blank) until you start to explore
it. Beware, however, that you cannot detect enemy pieces
unless you are right next to them. The actual map that you
see on the display is a summary of all the most recent
information that you have about the world.

Each of your cities can be assigned to produce one of the
pieces (A,F,D,T,S,R,
C or B). A city is attacked by moving an
army onto it. The army has a 50% chance of conquering it.
Capturing cities is crucial to destroying your opponents.

An enemy piece is attacked by moving one of your pieces onto
it. Hits are traded off (at a 50% chance of landing on one
piece or the other) until one piece is totally destroyed.
Only one of the pieces will survive the conflict. Each piece
can withstand only so many hits before it is destroyed.
Damage sustained by a piece is cumulative until it is either
destroyed or repaired. The number of hits that each piece can
take are:

PIECES

Armies:

Armies are of primary importance. Only armies can capture
cities and take over continents. They move on land at a rate
of 1 move per round. Movement across water is performed using
a troop transport. To board a troop transport, just move your
army onto it. Armies cannot move onto their own cities, they
will be destroyed if they try. Armies drown when moving
across water without the aid of a troop transport.

Fighters:

Fighters are airplanes that can move over land or sea at the
rate of 4 moves per round. They have a limited range,
however, of 20 moves before they must refuel. Fighters can
refuel by landing in conquered cities or on one of your
aircraft carriers. Attempting to land in cities that aren't
yours is futile.

Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships:

Ships can move on sea, or can dock in captured cities. They
move at 2 moves per round like all ships, unless they're
heavily damaged. In this case movement drops to 1 move per
round. Ships can be repaired by docking them (moving them
into one of your cities). These ships are normally used to
protect your own troop transports or to menace the enemy's.
Ships run aground and sink if you move them onto dry land.

Submarines:

Submarines are like the other ships except that if one should
score a hit against an enemy ship, 3 hits worth of damage is
done instead of 1 (enough to sink the smaller ships!).

Troop Transports:

Troop transports are used to carry armies from one continent
to another. They can carry up to 6 armies, less if they're
damaged. Troop transport captains are very short-tempered and
tend to deal abruptly with armies should too many get aboard.

Aircraft Carriers:

Carriers can carry and refuel fighters. They can carry a
maximum of 8, less if they're damaged.

OPERATION

The program will prompt you to move each piece. The prompt
consists of a short message in the upper left corner of the
screen, and the cursor will be positioned on the map. The
message shows what mode you are in. The modes are:

Move

Survey

Direction

From To

City Prod

If no mode message is displayed, the program is not expecting
a command. All commands consist of single keys. No carriage
return is required.

Direction keys:

QWE
A D This is the layout of the direction keys
ZXC on a QWERTY keyboard.

The letters QWEADZXC represent directions of movement, as if
the cursor were situated on the letter S of your keyboard.
For example, E means move upward and to the right. X means
move straight down. The space bar indicates no movement.

If you have an IBM PC keyboard, the arrow keys may be used
instead.

Each mode is explained below.

MOVE MODE

Most of the game will be spent in move mode. In fact, the
entire game can be played without ever leaving it. In this
mode, the cursor will be positioned over where the piece is,
and the top line of the display will show what the piece is.
You can enter either a move or a command.

A move is entered by pressing one of the direction keys
indicating the direction that you want the piece to go in. If
you don't want the piece to move, press the space bar.

The following commands are available in MOVE mode:

F

Set the piece to move towards a specified location.
This will put you in the From To mode. See FUNCTIONS.

G

Set the piece (must be a fighter) moving towards the
nearest owned city or aircraft carrier.

H

Give the enemy 20 free moves. Do this if you feel the
enemy is doing poorly and is not giving you a
sufficient challenge.

I

Set the piece to moving in a specified direction. This
will put you in the Direction mode. See FUNCTIONS.

J

Turn the sound on/off.

K

Awaken the piece the cursor is on. See FUNCTIONS.

L

Set the piece (a troop transport or aircraft carrier)
in the Load Armies or Load Fighters function. See
FUNCTIONS.

N

Center the screen about the current position of the
cursor.

R

Set the piece to moving at random. See FUNCTIONS.

S

Set the piece to be a sentry. See FUNCTIONS.

U

If the piece is a troop transport or an aircraft
carrier, wake up all the armies or fighters that are
aboard.

V

Save the game. The game will be saved in a file called
EMPIRE.DAT on the default drive. The file will be 31000
bytes long. If your disk is too full for it, you will
get an error mesasge. If so, insert an empty (but
formatted) disk in and try again.

Y

Enter SURVEY mode.

Control Break

This is used to exit the program and return
to DOS.

<

Decrease delay time by 1/4 second. This delay time is
the time that messages stay on the screen before the
program moves on. The messages become redundant after a
while, and can be speeded up with this command.

&gt

Increase delay time by 1/4 second. Use if the messages
flash by too fast.

SURVEY MODE

This mode allows you to travel around and look at the map,
alter the functions assigned to your pieces, change the
production demands given to cities, etc. It is entered using
the Y command from MOVE mode.

The direction keys move the cursor around. Each time you move
the cursor onto one of your pieces or cities, information on
that piece or city will be displayed. Note that commands in
SURVEY mode operate only on the piece displayed (for
instance, you cannot operate on an army aboard a troop
transport from the SURVEY mode).

Most commands operate the same as in move mode. The
differences are:

G

Using G when the cursor is on a city sets the FIPATH of
that city to the nearest conquered city or aircraft
carrier. See FIPATH.

K

Using K when the cursor is on a city disables the
city's FIPATH if it has one. See FIPATH.

P

Assign new production demands to a city by putting you
in the CITY PROD mode.

U

Using U when the cursor is on a city awakens all the
pieces that may be in that city.

V,Y

Not available.

esc

Return to MOVE mode.

DIR MODE

This mode expects a direction key to be pressed. This will
then assign the direction function to the piece that the
cursor is on. See FUNCTIONS.

Escape (the esc key) will abort this mode.

CITY PROD MODE

This mode expects a key representing what you demand that
your city produce be pressed. The keys are:

The start time is the number of rounds required to produce a
piece for the first time. The continuing time is the number
of rounds required to produce subsequent pieces. If you
change the production demands of a city before it has
completed its piece, the partially completed piece will be
discarded.

FROM TO MODE

This mode is used to assign the MOVE TO function to a piece.
Move the cursor until it is on the location that you wish to
move the piece to, and press T (as in FROM location TO
location).

Note: If you are giving the MOVE TO function to a fighter,
the cursor's distance from the fighter cannot exceed
the fighter's fuel remaining. This also applies to
setting the FIPATH of a city.

Escape will abort this mode.

FUNCTIONS

In order to relieve the tedium of moving each piece each
round, your pieces can be assigned various functions, under
which they move automatically. The functions are:

NONE

No function, or awake. You will be asked for
a move each turn.

SENTRY

The piece will not move.

RANDOM

The piece will move at random subject to the
following conditions:

The piece will not do anything to cause it
to be destroyed.

If it is an army, it will board an
unloaded troop transport and wake up if it is
next to one.

MOVE TO

The piece is set to move towards a specified
location. When it arrives, it will return to
the NONE function. If something is in the
way, you will be asked to move the piece
around the obstacle (this is called
temporarilly waking up).

DIRECTION

The piece will move in a specified direction.
It will temporarilly wake up if something is
in its way.

LOAD ARMIES

A troop transport can be assigned this
function, in which case it will go on sentry
duty until it is fully loaded with armies.

LOAD FIGHTERS

Same as LOAD ARMIES, but for aircraft
carriers instead.

In general, the following constraints apply:

When a fighter is 10 moves out, it will temporarilly wake
up to give you a chance to return it to a city or carrier for
refueling. The G command comes in handy here.

Armies always temporarilly wake up if they're next to an
unconquered city.

All pieces wake up if they're next to an enemy piece.

FIPATH

Each of your cities can be assigned a FIPATH. This is a
location, which when a fighter lands in that city, is
assigned to that fighter. It shows up as a MOVE TO function
for the fighter. FIPATHS are assigned to cities from the
SURVEY mode using the F and T commands. Clear the FIPATH
using the K command. FIPATHs are very useful when cities are
producing fighters far from the front, the fighters can be
'chained' from city to city up to the front.

MISCELLANEOUS

Other players' moves are performed while the computer is
waiting for a command from you. This can be entertaining at
times, like when a piece is destroyed while you are trying to
move it! In any case, there is a 10 to 20 round maximum
spread between players. If you exceed this limit, no more
commands will be accepted until the other players have caught
up a bit.

Watch out on the map displays. The locations of enemy pieces
shown may not be accurate, as they probably moved since you
detected them! Remember that the map displays only a history
of what you have seen before.

If the message OVERPOP should appear, the game is saturated
with too many pieces. No more will be produced until some are
destroyed.

The computer operated players play by the same rules and
under the same conditions that you do. It has no special
advantages, though it may appear otherwise at times.

When a new game is started, it may take 100 to 200 rounds of
play before you discover the other players (or they discover
you!). Be patient, it's a large map.

Be careful of whether you are in MOVE mode or SURVEY mode.
Entering many commands in MOVE mode when you thought you were
in SURVEY mode can run ships aground and drown armies
inadvertantly.

When in MOVE mode, and the cursor is on a troop transport,
the message at the top of the screen will show whether a
transport is to be moved or an army that is aboard it. Moving
the wrong one can run the transport aground or drown the
army.

SETTING UP SERIAL PORTS

Setting up the serial ports to work with another terminal
can be confusing and frustrating. Here is a scheme which
should work in most cases (Northwest Software does not
guarantee that it will work).